why a Bronco for you?

[No Hay]

I was 16 in 1976 and I don't recall if I knew what Broncos were then. But a very HOT divorced woman lived around the corner who would drive by in her topless bright orange '71 once in a while with her long red hair and tight white T shirt. It had a 2" lift, Tru Tracs and roll bar. I lusted after both! I finally got the balls to go knock on her door to see if she would sell it. By the time I was 17, she finally said OK. I loved that EB. Like everybody says, "sure wish I still had it." I will never forget it or her!

I'm on my 4th one now and won't let it go.

 

[tvall]

I think I was destined to own a Bronco. My parents belonged to a Jeep club in the late 60's and 70's and owned a Jeep CJ5 until '73. They bought a '69 Bronco when my mom got pregnant with me and they needed more room. They brought me home from the Hospital in the Bronco and had it until I turned 4. I wanted one growing up so bad that when my friends would talk about their fantasy cars being Lambo's and Ferraris mine was always a Bronco.

 

[SC74]

I remember looking for a 1st vehicle before I was even old enough to have a license. They had a '74 on the raised platform in front of one of the local used car dealers and I loved it. The used car salesman of course talked it up and made me want it even more. Of course, and I can't blame him, my dad said NO! He was right, I'd spend more time working on it than driving it. From that time forward, I was determined to get an Early Bronco.

Fast forward a few years to college.... I had saved some money and was on the look out for a good deal on an Early Bronco. I found one, but can't say it was such a good deal. It did run, but the body was swiss cheese. It was half primer gray and half rattle can camo. The backseat came full of parts that the previous owner had purchased with his build in mind. I actually still own this Bronco and pieced 2 other Broncos together to make 1 during my time at college. This is now my baby blue '74 that we cruise on pretty days

 

[BRONCOchild]

I have an uncle that I grew up with and I looked up to as a kid. He had a huge influence in my life and he inspired me to get an EB because he had one.

 

[WheelHorse]

I was 7 year old when my dad was forced to sell of his '69 Firebird 400. I still remember him saying I'd give it to you if you were old enough.

So I've grown up with V8's. The sound being it bow tie or oval, the ability to smoke up the tires, the smell of an uncatted v8 mixed with old interior...you guys know what I'm talking about.

I had a buddy growing up, thick as thieves we were, whose father owned a '73 witha 351W C4 and a '72 with a NP 4 speed. Too many memories to share, but I was able to acquire one for just $500 dollars at 16 years old.

She was totaled shortly thereafter buy a speeding Fox body, so on came a frame up slapped-together on a high school budget Bronco.

High school buddies:

Sold the Bronco to get into Fox Mustangs in the late 90's. Bought a '73 and later sold it to my Dentist who let me drive it after he had it all restored.

Many moons later, I sold off my supercharged Mustang and found a '77 out of Colorado.

Now my two year old son asks for Bronco rides constantly.

 

[D ROCK]

My buddies have CJ's. I wanted to be different. Sometimes you gotta swim upstream...

 

[langester]

I hung out with a bunch of guys that wrenched and drove all kinds of 4x4s. My first was a 79 Scout II. I fell in love with short wheel base rigs. I was in High School, I had it about a year and got tired of hunting for parts. I saw my first Bronco for sale and it had what I was looking for (v8,lift,etc.) I bought it and was hooked from then on. I have had and sold them in the past and am now in the process of building my newest and cant wait to get done!

 

[Pa PITT]

Well I was an old parts man started in the part business in a 1967 I think. So the Ford house was a good customer . & The owner always had a Bronco as his SEXY Ride. He'd never let it get dirty. BUT HE DID HAVE LOTS OF SWEET RIDE.
. 20 Years later I sold all the Dupont paint in our town & he got back into the OLD Broncos again.
By this time several more Bronco were in town & this batch was getting dirty & lifted .
Later 35 years My Running Buddy wanted a 4x4 that wouldn't loose value . So I Stumbled over one in Ft Worth . He traded an AK47 & 500 BUCKS FOR IT.
The Maddest started . I did most of the build on his.
.... By this time I decided I needed one . So I found mine & $500.00 later, IT was in my shop .. So about 2 years later MINE WAS ON THE ROAD. In maybe the 1st 3 years of mine , I had P/S , Disk brakes, NP435. Twin Sticks, Trac Locks front & rear. & Several other upgrades. But I never like mine as I could not keep it from getting hot . About 20 minutes & it was on 250.
So then I went to work for the Dodge dealership & we worked on 12V Diesels .. Next thing you know I was on a Web sight called 4BTSWAPS.COM . After reading there for a few months .. I had to have a 4BT.
.... I'd already swapped my to a NP435 Lifted 2 of 3 inches . So pulled the Gasser out & started fabrication for the 4BT. My install took about 6 months. Then with help from Skidder Joe we put in a wiring harness.
....... Now about 10 years later I love my Bronco. It's so dependable with the diesel & It never gets hot & I don't even run a fan blade on it. & Same Aluminum radiator as was in my Gasser.
... I love mine but I'd not recommend it to most of the Classic Board.
... MINE GET USED ON THE FARM.

 

[bowhunter]

Growing up.......I was always the outdoor type; hunting, fishing, riding dirt bikes was my thing and I've always had a 4x4 of some kind.

I was 17 and on a hunting trip with a buddy in the Yola Boly Mountains of Northern California when my buddies uncle picked us up on an old logging road after we shot a buck. He was driving an ole, beat-up, baby blue, uncut Bronco with no top and had the windshield down and I remember falling in love at first sight.

I bought my first Bronco in 1998, after starting my family and my business. I've owned 11 in this time and still have a 76 Explorer sitting in the garage. I still get the feeling I felt that down on that mountain side every time I see it.

 

[Attac]

Because.....Bronco.... What else do we need to say

 

[Biohazard]

I was in high school, and a kid I went to school with had one. Basically stock, 302 3sp. He drove the living hell out of it. Broke a spider gear pulling out of the school parking lot one day doing a burnout. But the one that I will always remember belonged to a guy I never met. I don't even know the year, but it was a U14 half cab, dark blue, clean, probably a 3.5" lift, 33" tires on old chrome mod wheels, cruising through town. I saw the truck every once in a while but that one day I remember very clear. It pulled up to a stop light adjacent to us, and it just sit there and idled, then pulled away. It was love at first sight. Since then I've owned every other year but 66-77. I was working in the oil field a few years ago and came across a couple of craiglist adds, one not far from me, the other 2.5hrs out. I had some money in the bank that should've been used for something else, but I was determined to own an EB. Went and looked at the one close and was disappointed. It was already lifted and a LOT of PO patchwork and shortcuts that I just wasn't ready to mess with and the price was way high. Drove over to Memphis to look at one that had been "restored" several years ago, was about the same money but had a soft top. Got there, wouldn't start, the restoration was just a patch and drive job, talked the guy down quite a bit on the price, and loaded it up. On the way back I stopped and bought a LOT of parts from the first Bronco seller, and the rest is pretty well as the saying goes. I couldn't be more pleased, I now own an EB.

 

[Prizefighter]

Dad bought a 1977 Bronco in 1980 and drove it for 16 years. In 1996 when I turned 16 he gave it to me as my first vehicle. By the time I was 19 I owned three. We made lots of good memories in it and my whole childhood involved that Bronco.

 

[daddycreswell]

In 1991 at the ripe age of 16 I was wanting a truck for my first car, My dad and Uncle had fond a 79 Ford truck, jacked up just what I liked. I drove it and fell in love, my uncle was a mechanic and told my dad it was to far gone, wasn't worth fixing. I was pissed and said whatever. My other 2 brothers cars had come from a local auction house, my Uncle also had a dealers license. He and my dad went to an auction one night and came home with a 1975 Red Ranger all factory with brown houndstooth interior. I'm not sure I'd ever seen an EB before but I liked it, I drove it for a couple of years then thought it would be cool to have a "sports car". Sold it to a guy in Nashville for 1250.00 and rest is history. Myself or my dad were never "car guys", didn't work on them etc... I was always pissed I sold it the older I got. In 2009 my dad passed away from Cancer, a year or so after I seen an EB pass on the other side of the interstate and told the wife I wanted, because that was my 1st car and daddy had bought it for me. Searched looked at a few, came across mine which need a new tranny but was the only way I could afford it with my budget. Bought fixed the tranny, replaced the interior. Drive on the weekends, and SMILE LIKE HELL every time I fire it up. It doesn't get driven as much as it should, sits in the garage all the time, but I refuse to get rid of it. My 13 year old son will own it someday so therefore I'll never get rid of it. Makes me smile every time I walk in the garage and see it. I'm just a guy with the baddest ride on the plant with a couple of thousand friends who think the same thing.

 

[Rustytruck]

My grandfather had a 1963 Ford Fairlane with a 260 in it that my mom got when he passed that I worked on. Then she had a 1967 Mercury Caliente with a 289 which she handed me when the c-4 blew. I was 15 at the time and had to replace the tranny to have a car to drive when I turned 16. At the same time I was working on my sisters 64-1/2 Mustang with a 289. So I was bleeding Ford blood pretty early. In the same time frame Bronco's were kicking ass in the racing circuit and were in the magazines so when I graduated High school in 1977 and working Full time, I bought my used 1974 Bronco on Christmas eve from a Jeep dealer with 10,000 miles on it. Still have that same Bronco to this day. Not once has it ever crossed my mind to sell it. It was the best decision I made in my life. 3 days after I bought it I took a saber saw to the wheel wells and added front and rear fiberglass flairs. My family thought I was nuts. Starting that saw into that sheet metal for the first cut scared me to death. Drove it for almost 20 years as my primary vehicle and my trail runner. Then about another 12 years as trail runner only and 5 years ago cleaned it up and did the body work to make it look good again. These days lives mostly for joyrides and some light trail duty now and then. Its been towed twice. Once for a broken steering box and once for a distributor pick-up failure on the way to Fab Fords last year. All other issues in its life with me its always limped home on its own power. It has tested me at times to figure out a way to help it get home but that's what best friends are for. We both grew old together and Its been my trusty friend all these years.

 

[hokanson86]

Well my bronco is a lot like some of these story's and how you got them as your first car. My bronco was my grandpas bronco and growing up he had two vehicles a 1969 bronco and a AMC eagle. So when we went to his farm in Montana we either rode in the bronco or the eagle. We went on many camping trips and many long drives with him in his bronco. His seat was worn and tattered and the passenger seat was line new but furry from his dog sitting there by his side. When my grandfather passed I was 15 and I inherited the bronco. it had been sitting for some time with a rear main seal leaking. I still remember try to get it on the car trailer having no clue about a three on the tree and having a clutch slip I just kept picking gears and reeving it up until on would make it move. That summer I worked my ass of for a long block engine and new clutch. Me and my dad installed the engine and clutch and got it running before I got my license and iv been breaking it and fixing it ever since.

 

[roundhouse]

my dad worked for GM for several years and always drove GM cars for his daily drivers

But he always had fords for his hobby cars

We had a 62 Mercury meteor 4 door
A 63 meteor 2 door with PS auto and AC
A secession of 66 thunderbird laudaus
A 69 thunderbird 4 door 429
Several model As
My brothers first car when he turned 16 in 1978 was a $500 '68 mustang

I owned a 69 Mercury cyclone Cale Yarbrough edition

Bought my EB in 95 When I wanted to get a older 4x4
I just wanted something that wasn't a jeep
Looked at some scouts
The EB rode a lot better


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tasker]

with the news of a 2020 Bronco coming out, again, WHY A BRONCO?

 

[Nothing Special]

I had a Jeep CJ5 that I loved, but I couldn't fit my family (wife and two kids) and lunch into it. As my boys outgrew the back seat I decided I needed something bigger.

I found that in addition to having more room the Bronco rides a lot better, especially on the highway) and gets better mileage (and the Jeep only had a 6 cyl).

 

[bronconut73]

My eb found me.....I even resisted....But it won me over as a still very young man....I have been in love ever since...
My wife calls her the mistress....

Why the new Bronco?
Because I'm a Bronco idiot. No matter what Ford produces....If they slap a Bronco logo on it.... I'm gonna buy it...I realized that about 4 years ago....

 

[trekgurl]

It didn't start out they way,,,,

It was early 1975 and I was home on leave and I had $1800 dollars that I had saved and I found a red 1975 Z-28 camaro that I had to have. My parents had settled down some over the fact that there daughter enlisted in the Marine Corps because I didn't want to go to Baptist college. Too many rules I thought and jumped from the frying pan into the fire,, that was smart%) duh,, lol. Anyway that red Z-28 was hot and I was going to look hot in it and took my daddy to see it one day after he got off work. We looked at that car for over an hour, test drove it,, and I was dying to have it. My daddy didn't say no but he didn't say yes and he mumbled something about " crazy kids , 4 on the floor, 3 on the three, fifith under the seat". He said wait until saturday and if the car was still there we'd go look at it again.

That was on a Wednesday and on that Friday my dad got off work early and told me he had a friend coming by and he had a 4 wheel drive he was wanting to sell. So the guy comes by and he's got this 1974 sandpiper yellow bronco with the white top,, brown plaid curtains in the back, it was cut out in the back with 10x15 desert dawgs on it and other than a roll bar and chrome air cleaner it was bone stock. I'd never seen a bronco before up close and never even thought about one as I was car crazy. Well this guy "Wayne" proceeds to tell me all about the bronco and asked me to go 4 wheeling that night and he'd show me how it worked. So that night we went, with some jeeps, a scout, few land cruisers, couple big blazers,, and that sh_t was a blast. We went places a billy goat couldn't walk, and forded creeks with water up the doors, and mud holes big a lakes. That bronco never missed a beat,, and there was a lot of vehicles with body damage that night and the broncos and jeeps cleaned everything.

Now being the level headed thinking person I was (remember the Marine Corps enlistement thought process, %) ) I was hooked. I had more fun than I knew exsisted that night and I wanted that bronco. My daddy didn't know we went four wheeling cause a visited a car wash about 3 am after we came out of the woods and made it look shiny again. Next day I told my daddy I would buy the Bronco and I think I heard a sigh of relief? Monday I went the bank and got a loan for the remainder of the $4400 I paid for it.

Top speed 92 mph, longest jump 28ft (my daddy was witness, cause he was riding with me, honest ) stuck 3 times (and I mean freakn buried and got that what the h-ll were you thinking lQQk). Been in two white outs (one local and one on the Blue ridge parkway with wind blowing 50kts) and not another soul in site and that bronco never let me down. Almost rolled it twice,,(showing off in 2wd) and had to change my pants,, one brake failure (nearly died of heart attack) , 1 drive shaft, several wheel bearings, 3 clutches (what can I say I was hard on the clutch), one driver side window (broke when slamming my door, mad at my friend boy, and various miscellaneous parts from normal wear and tear but it would keep on going and going.

Way back,,, I'd drive from Durham, NC to Jacksonville Florida many times,,, about 3 1/2 tanks of gas, and a partial fillup when I got there. Sometimes drove back and forth in the same weekend and truckers knew me as yellow doggie (KAAD 1855) on the cb, with that big ole whip. Slept in it, ate it, parked in it,, haha,,,carried all my cr@p it in (gurl has some luggage too). Went fishing in it so many times it knew the way to the coast by itself. Pulled out countless stuck cars, trucks and my daddy pulled a state motor grader out of the ditch one time. Never will forget my daddy and the look on his face when I came home on leave and I had ordered a set of Appliance headers. I asked him to help me put them on and him being a carpenter by trade we both knew nothing about what we were doing. Six or 7 hours later and a lot of cursing I cranked it up and it sounded like farm tractor and my daddy looked at me like I had lost my mind,, as I drove out the driveway around the neighborhood with uncapped headers. My daddy sure did love me alright.

11 years later and 188,000 hard miles I sold that bronco for a $1000 and always regretted it. It never left me stranded when it counted.. only messed up when my friends made me do it, haha. Dang bronco gave me so many memories and took me so many places, so many I cannot remember them all. That bronco probably saved my life,,, thinking back to when I had to have that Z-28.

My Mom just passed passed a few months ago,,my daddy is nearing 91yrs old and rounding that corner,,, I'm getting on too %) and when I round my final corner I hope its wide open with no regrets. If you look out back there's still a damn bronco there and my daddy keeps asking me when I'm going to get the mufflers fixed ;D,,, you can't make this stuff up.



Why a Bronco for me? . destiny.......


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